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admin on March 25th, 2008
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This is one trick I learned while doing party plan, and while it may work best for party plan consultants, it can also work for other product related businesses.
In the lead up to a special occasion - such as Christmas, Mother’s Day, or any other gift giving occasion - have an Open House where you invite your customers to come and shop between certain hours. During this time, have a display of your products, serve refreshments, give some prizes for those who come and have some offers only available on the day.
Some things that are worth offering include free gift wrapping, special gift packs only available on the day, and a gift with purchases over $100.
Open your home during these hours, invite your customers, and invite them to bring a friend. If you want to open it up further, you may want to look in to hiring a hall for the day, and even teaming up with a few others to share the cost of the hall and insurance.
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admin on March 24th, 2008
Posted in Wedding Ideas, Free & Cheap ideas | No Comments »
If you run a business that has anything to do with weddings, you are most likely to have the wedding date of the couple. As the wedding date approaches, send the couple a wedding card. You may want to include a small gift or some gift vouchers for services they can use after the wedding, such as a dinner at a local restaurant (a great cross promotion opportunity).
Even if your service is not the sort of thing the couple will use again, it will increase your word of mouth sales - chances are the couple have friends who will be getting married and ask for a referral. Your thoughtful card and gift will help you stand out among the crowd of services they have used.
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admin on March 23rd, 2008
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This is a great idea if you sell maternity and baby products. When an expectant mother buys from you, try and collect her due date, or invite her to let you know when her baby is born. Around the due date, or when the baby is born, send a congratulations card with a small gift, or enclose some gift vouchers from some baby products stores and other support services inside.
This will give the new mother a good feeling about your business, and she will refer her friends.
The tricky part here is knowing when she has given birth… Maybe you could start a baby club or an online birth announcement service via a message board or blog, or partner up with an existing online birth announcement service and keep an eye on this for names in your database.
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admin on March 22nd, 2008
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There have been a number of magazines recently that have had a “Where in the World” competition. Here they invite their readers to send in photographs of exotic places they have been reading their magazine. They publish the photo and send the reader a prize.
Depending on your business, you could do something similar, and this works best if you sell your products Internationally, or they help people travel. This could also be similar to the “Who is wearing” competition of idea 40.
Invite your customers to submit photographs of them using or wearing or reading your products in exotic locations. Publish the photo on your site, along with a link to any travel diaries by your customer, and send them a gift voucher or a product as a prize.
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admin on March 21st, 2008
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There are many websites, magazines, blogs, and other publications that review products, and if you make your own product or have something unique to offer, then sending products for review could be a great way to promote your business.
While for the most part, reviews won’t cost you money, your product generally won’t be returned, so be prepared to write off some of your stock for review purposes.
Before sending products, do your research. Know the sorts of products the website or publication reviews and make sure your product is in keeping with the sorts of things they are interested in. For example, there is no point sending a cloth nappy to a magazine that promotes car parts.
Some websites and publications will have guidelines for the sorts of products they review - if they do, get a copy of these and make sure your products match the guidelines.
When you send your products, include a letter or media release telling the publication about your product and why it’s so great. If necessary, include some instructions or tips on how to make the most of your product.
Remember, sending a product is no guarantee of a review.
Some places you may want to send products to are:
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admin on March 20th, 2008
Posted in Party Plan, Free & Cheap ideas | 1 Comment »
Mother’s Day is one of the biggest shopping times, outside Christmas, for retailers. If you sell items Mums would love, here are a few ideas to kick start your promotions:
- Free gift wrapping for every Mother’s Day gift
- Free gift card
- Gift with purchases over a certain amount
- Create special Mother’s Day banners to promote your business
- Put a Mother’s Day message on your home page
- If you do Party Plan, have a Mother’s Day Open House so kids can buy for their mothers
There are many other ideas, if you have used any in your business, please share them with us by leaving a comment.
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admin on March 19th, 2008
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One thing I have found while having a website is this - to keep people coming back, you need to update your home page regularly.
It’s one thing to update your other content, but if your visitors don’t know it’s there, they won’t come back and see what is new. This will also encourage the search engines to visit.
On your home page, you may want to highlight a product each month or week, list any new articles, have an RSS feed for blog posts or forum posts, or add a News section.
The aim of any home page is to get visitors to click past it and into the rest of your site, where they will then buy. Updating your home page regularly gives regular visitors a reason to come back and see what is new.
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admin on March 18th, 2008
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Many sites have a list of top sites on a theme. These can be a good way of raising awareness of your site, get an extra link back, and possibly get some more traffic.
Before joining a top sites list, make sure it is relevant to your site. For example, if you have a scrapbooking business, there is no point in joining a motorbike topsites list, unless you specialise in motorbike embellishments.
Most topsites lists will require you to add a button to your site. Add this to the bottom of your home page so it doesn’t detract from your own business and products, and make sure that when people click on it that the site opens in a new window.
A few Australian topsites lists you may want to consider join are:
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admin on March 17th, 2008
Posted in Free & Cheap ideas | 2 Comments »
Many local councils have festivals and offer tables or expo space for local businesses. Often these tables are very cheap and provide you with a great opportunity to promote your business to your local community. At times, these can even be more effective than having a stand at a larger expo!
If you are going to a community event, make sure you have some kind of sign up sheet so you can follow up after the expo, and maybe some sort of special offer for the locals. You may want to offer a free pick up service at certain times, or free delivery of any purchases in your online shop to anyone in the local area.
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admin on March 16th, 2008
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This one may seem odd for marketing your business, but bear with me.
If you have a blog, record some of your website visits. Comment on how great a website is, or about an interesting a blog post, or what great service you received. Make sure you include the URL to the website or blog you are talking about so your visitors can click through to visit the site. These visits will be recorded by the websites stats program, and if they are anything like me, they will check out referring sites to see what they are saying.